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Buying a first generation Toyota Aygo.

George J said:
Dear Steve,

I have a very fine scrap metal yard that pays 10 pence per kilogram for defunct cars and they handle the DVLA paperwork as well.

That way I have got money for a Nissan Micra and Citroen Saxo shortly before MOT expiry.

There are quite a few of these Aygo derivatives about. A neighbour has much newer Peugeot 108[?] that is essential an updated version of the same car, which he plans to sell next year. I know the provenance, and it might make a neat replacement when the time comes.

And I could take some of the common parts off as a spares back-up. Same battery, alternator, starter, windscreen wipers .... etc.

I rather like the model, but not fussed if it is a Toyota, Citroen, or Peugeot.

Best wishes from George
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Sorry your car turned out to be a duffer George.

As a heads up, as you appear to be ready buy another variant, this generation of Aygo/107/C1 are notorious for water ingress. My daughters was pretty bad until I spent a weekend with a hosepipe tracking down the leaks.

They were :

1: high level brake light, needed silicone sealant
2: rear light clusters, needed silicone sealant
3: the rear tailgate bump stops (they fit loosely), needed silicone sealant.
4: door seals not properly fitted (they needed to be clamped tighter to the flange around the door apertures).
5: rear tailgate latch needed moving inwards to properly seat the rear window against the rubber seal.

Good luck!
 
I am not complaining. It will run till April, and I'll have got my money's worth. I paid a pittance for it.

If it had been good for another MOT, it would have been really nice, but it is not a problem.

It is a fact that cars like the old Volvo 240 were rare even in their day in terms of durability, and there will never the like again. After all look what good the 240 did for Volvo.

Many repeat customers, but once every fifteen or twenty years!

The is no modern Volvo I would call better than any other car with average durability.

The Saxo and the Micra I mentioned above as having scrapped both cost me nothing more than scrap value, so I know that it takes a little luck to find a cheap car that is not likely to have a short life ahead.

It drives nicely, and provided it is mechanically reliable, which is usually good with Toyota, it will serve it purpose.

Best wishes from George
 
George J said:
The Aygo would require a lot of work to pass another MOT...

Basically it getting close to being beyond welding...

The car will live till next April.
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George, I’m late to this thread, but your car isn’t roadworthy. You shouldn’t drive it at all, let alone for six months.
 
Alex N said:
George, I’m late to this thread, but your car isn’t roadworthy. You shouldn’t drive it at all, let alone for six months.
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don't be silly. Just because a car won't pass a test in 6 months because of corrosion doesn't make it non roadworthy now. Brakes, steering, yes, but corrosion no. It's not in an unsafe condition now, otherwise the garage would have said so and advised hi m according ly.
 
Alex N said:
Buying a £400 car, and driving it when you know it would fail an MOT tomorrow, is sensible?
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It's dangerous, as in it has faults that make it so, or it's not. I can fail an MoT for a chipped screen or an engine light on the dash. That makes it danverous? No. Not sensible to drive it? Hardly. George has had the thing on the ramp and inspected it. The mechano knows it's fit to drive.
 
Car update:

The Aygo carries on. I have however bought a BMW Mini One for £400. This a a healthy specimen, and has no obvious rust underneath [or anywhere else] and the only blemish is the lacquer on the front bumper which has done the de-lamination thing over the paint on the plastic.

The price was simply negotiated. My neighbour [who is also very happy that I am a neighbour] told me he had traded the Mini, and so I offered to equal the trade in price. No skin off anyone's nose in that case, as car dealers don't really like trading ancient vehicles against newer ones ...

So the Toyota will run for as long as it is legal and safe and be scrapped, at which point I'll put the Mini on the road. Of course I'll move it about once a week to keep the clutch and brakes happy, but it is SORN'ed and parked on private land.

It is one like this:


Best wishes from George
 
That's a better car than an Aygo, and at £400 for a sound runner you can't go wrong. I'd be selling the Auto cheap while it still has some MoT to someone who just wants a runabout for a bfew months, or a car for a learner to destroy.
 
robs said:
Wow, nice! Wish I could find a decent mini for £400!!
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Yeah they're lovely little cars, although not without their problems. I spent quite a lot more and ended up with something that looked fab and was great fun to drive, but also drove me mad with a constant supply of problems to sort out (sun roof refusing to shut and just doing the hokey-cokey instead, sun roof blind all mashed up, water pump failure, vanos solenoids dying, spotlights disintegrating, windscreen squirter pump died, chain tensioner needed replacing, occasional weird overheating which I never got to the bottom of etc etc.). And that annoying little noise it made every time the car computer management detected another new issue made my heart sink on a regular basis. All common problems that made me give it up after just one year, although I think some of the problems I had didn't affect the earlier or later ones (mine was an '07 Cooper).

We now have a Pug 107 bought for local trips (or even longer journeys when we don't need to to take much stuff), and it's definitely quite spartan compared to the Mini. It's also much slower and noisier. However it's incredibly cheap to own and so far it's given us zero problems which is a great, and to my complete surprise I actually quite enjoy driving it :).
 
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